The world has become increasingly aware of the scarcity of fuel including, particularly, the fossil fuels, gas and oil. Prior systems for producing electrical power are ecologically destructive, having an adverse impact on the environment either because of their prodigious consumption of irreplaceable fossil fuels, or because of an adverse impact on the environment caused by their combustion of fossil fuels.
At the same time the world has become increasingly aware of the energy available from the sun, particularly, in those areas where there is a high percentage of days throughout the year when the sun is available for heating purposes and for other energy available in the sun's spectrum. Therefore, attempts have been made to use the sun's energy either to heat dwellings or to generate electricity through some form of conversion device, such as a photovoltaic cell or thermocouple. These attempts, however, have several disadvantage. However, because solar power has so many advantages, a great deal of attention has been paid to the utilization of solar energy Accordingly, various devices have been proposed and constructed for converting the heat energy from the sun to electrical energy and in fact attention is being increasingly focused on such devices, in view of the world energy crisis. One such device is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,969,637. As disclosed in that patent, a fluid flows through a solar heat accumulator where it is heated and expanded and thereafter passed through a turbine. The turbine drives an electrical generator which produces electricity. The heated fluid passes through a condenser wherein the heat extracted from the fluid returning to the reservoir is stored in water which is periodically supplied to the solar heat accumulator during periods when the solar energy is interrupted. A system of this type, however, appears to have a very low efficiency particularly since the heat stored in the water, in anticipation of an interruption of the solar energy, is readily dissipated. Also, the large number of pumps and motors in the system disclosed in that patent, necessary to operate that system, would appear to utilize a large portion of the electrical energy produced whereby the system appears only marginally practical or economical.
Since one of the principal purposes of the use of solar energy is to improve efficiency, any system or loop that can be used to increase the overall efficiency of such a system is likely to improve the system. Therefore, there is a need for a system that will improve the efficiency of an electrical generator plant that utilizes solar power.